


Glimpse of Future

by Caraidean



Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Execution Mention, Making The Oregon Trail Look Tame, Other, Technically not a story? More of a headcanon dump presented in story form, Tl;DR the bad future sucks and these kids need a therapist, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-14
Updated: 2018-01-14
Packaged: 2019-03-04 15:17:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13367439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caraidean/pseuds/Caraidean
Summary: A series of excerpts from Forgotten History Vol. 3: Logistics, a handbook about the day-to-day life in Grima's future by Laurent Milistin.





	Glimpse of Future

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written as a giveaway reward in the roleplay community. People liked it there, so I post it here.

> INTRODUCTION _  
> _

Much has been said about the wars, both in my own accounts and the perhaps more flamboyant ones by my contemporary Cynthia Ylisse. However, as ‘glorious’ as the conflict was either in hindsight or the moment, perhaps the true terror and struggle came from trying to live in the world as that happened. I understand not everyone wishes to read about supply issues and finding shelter, hence why I kept this information out of  _Forgotten History_  volumes One & Two, but it is just as important to creating a true understanding of the scenario we were in. 

> CH. 1 [Civilization]

Shortly after the fall of Ylisstol (see Forgotten History Vol 1), Ylissean society collapsed almost entirely. With no central government we scattered, most of the major population centers deciding to flee to the countryside in their droves - returning to relatives on farms or smaller villages. The resulting overpopulation of areas never intended to hold so many people caused illness and famine to run rampant, and a lack of strong leadership or organized legal system (see: Chapter 5) resulted in the further deaths of thousands. Of course, due to a lack of manpower and time they were placed in shallow graves - which as Grima’s influence spread to these more remote reasons, caused the newly created Risen to claw their way from the ground with little to no aid at all. 

Civilization in other regions of the world fared better - Plegia was mostly intact until three years in, when Grima apparently decided he no longer needed the Grimleal anymore and used his puppet Validar to organize what we believe was a mass ritual suicide among members of the cult. Ferox was used to having individual settlements become self-sufficient due to the nation’s sheer size and harsh winters making it a necessity, and life continued in relative normalcy in each of these regions until they were eventually swallowed by the Risen hordes in their own time. 

Across the ocean in Valm, Walhart completed his conquest unimpeded. Grima struck far too quickly, however, and his army was weak from two years of campaigning and the constant guerrilla attempts at rebellion from Chon'sin and Roseanne among others. When Valm fell, the only surviving 'civilizations’ were roaming groups of people like ourselves, a mix of military and civilians. When someone died, we stripped them of any supplies we would find necessary and burned the bodies before burying the skeleton in two different graves, to try and save them the desecration of becoming a Risen - and ourselves the trauma of having to fight any more resurrected friends. 

[…]

Groups would form intense bonds, forming their own symbols to identify themselves. We mostly remained as one, only splitting up when we absolutely had to - hearing about artifacts we could recover to perhaps turn the tide, but also to find more survivors. Sadly some survivor groups simply couldn’t believe that such a large group could have survived, or even worse, were driven to anger by the mere sight of Lucina and the others of royal descent - believing that the royal family had failed them. More than once, groups would come to blows, fighting over supplies or even simply a difference in belief. This resulted in similarities to tribal society, an apt comparison considering the quasi-nomadic lifestyle we were forced to adopt. 

As far as identification went, our group continued to identify as ‘Ylisse’. Other groups would refer to themselves by village, or the last name of a leader character. 

> CH. 2 [Supplies]

Fresh fruit and vegetables came into short supply, with most of the farms actively destroyed by Grimleal at first and later risen. Grima’s doctrine was very much salted earth, and as the world decayed so did sources of nourishment.   
Fish became a mainstay for the first few years, until he poisoned the rivers. Occasionally we managed to set out to sea and recover some, but never for long - boats risked being spotted by Grima’s flying scouts far too easily considering the fact that no shipping fleets remained. 

I understand this next segment may disgust some readers, but understand we had little choice. We had to live off the land from what we could find - our diets, towards the end, mostly consisted of root vegetables found in the wild, a smattering of berries, and any non-poisonous or venomous creature we could safely catch. Bear was a luxury, for example, being one of the few creatures that could survive a few roaming risen but still be killed safely by a well-prepared hunting team. Ultimately most of our protein came from insects - locusts and crickets, mostly. Whenever we were along the coast we harvested as much seaweed as possible, storing it in barrels of brine. We mostly drank hot water, boiled and blessed to purify it of any natural or magical poisons - lacking the time to ferment alcohol, and not having access to any fresh springs.   
The last two winters were harsh, as we had rode out previous ones by smoking and salting meat we caught through the rest of the year, but such preventative measures simply didn’t work with insects. Eventually we realized that we had to stay near the coast in winter if we wanted to survive, the dangerous-to-catch fish the only source of food we had. Thankfully it seemed that the risen were also susceptible to the cold, and patrols were far less common, reducing the risk fo these harvests. 

I would be quite happy to never see seaweed on my plate again after that second winter.

[…]

Treats were carefully created to help keep morale up. When we stumbled on bee hives, we would carefully take as much honey from it as possible, and boil it with the water ration. With time and effort we could turn it into taffy, which we would keep in a sealed container and given out sparingly - as rewards, mostly. A single batch could last us almost six months regulated properly. Sweet berries would be turned into preserves, jams to be eaten with a spoon from a cup, or topping crushed ice during winter or when near a peak. 

[…]

Military supplies were hard to come by. Armor was almost non-existent, not having the time to properly craft it for the individual. Surviving pegasus knights or cavaliers protected theirs religiously, sleeping in them to make sure they never lost a piece and hardly ever letting it out of their sight. Protection was shields - often of rough, uneven metal, since he had no forges - and at best boiled leather. Weapons we would take from the dead, friend or foe, as required - spellbooks were used sparingly, as only Grimleal mages had any more tomes we could recover. Thankfully our own group had an ordained minister with us, who knew how to create rough healing staves from branches and prayer, so we never ran out of those - but we have heard other groups had to resort to traditional medicine, frequently including amputation to prevent the corruption from a Risen’s claws spreading and killing the man. 

Arrows and javelins would be made from stone heads, enough to kill a basic Risen but nothing else. […] Other primitive weapons were used for these lower-tier opponents, as metal swords and axes were too important to waste on footsoldiers. 

[…]

Medical supplies - bandages, vulneraries, and so on - were made by civilians during downtime, from home remedies and whatever material we could find. Poultices were based off of folk remedies, as we simply lacked the refinement to rely on the scientific ones - thankfully, several of them worked. As time went on and the supplies to make these grew rarer, we grew ever more dependent on magical healing, which simply could not deal with everything. 

[…]

Ultimately, these supply issues resulted in an average attrition rate of 50-60% of a group per year, either from a lack of nutrition or infection. 

> CH. 3 [Shelter and Transport]

Buildings were death traps, even if they were still standing. Often the people who lived there were still around as Risen, and they were too easily spotted from the sky. We would move from cave to cave, or at the very least sufficiently dense forests to hang up sheets without exposing ourselves. Winter was hard, our movement limited - if it was not for the winter also weakening the Risen, we would have been found almost immediately. 

[…]

Horses were used to draw carts, and pegasi for scouting. Most of our travelling was on foot, although towards the end as our numbers grew smaller we either rode the horses or the carts.These carts would be stacked high with supplies, and guarded with our lives - the loss of a single cart could mean the loss of almost three week’s rations, medical supplies, and arms & ammunition. These carts and the creatures who drew them were given higher priority for shelter than even us humans, for without them we would be dead. If we found a cave just big enough to store the carts and the horses and we slept outside under sheets and blankets, even if it was storming, that was what we did. 

> CH. 4 [Recreation]

[…]

Books and games were too heavy to carry with us, mostly. I know of several people who kept a few of the lighter, physically smaller works on them - stories of questionable quality, but any reading material was good. Oftentimes, we would scratch boards  into the dirt when we made camp and use stones or chips of slate as markers for backgammon and checkers. 

[…]

In a bout of creativity, some of us found ways to make training 'fun’. Spars would become aspects of a play, taking on characters in a competitive contest. Athletics training would feature elements of the absurd, lifting increasingly outrageous items to show off to our companions and provide some form of levity. 

[…]

Crafting arrowheads from flint and other stones became an outlet as well, with many of us taking the opportunity to learn how to create different heads. Barbs, serrated, straight - it was a skill most of us mastered by the end. Similarly we learned how to engrave, leaving notches on leather armor to show who it belonged to and designs in the sides of wooden carts and barrels. This was indicative of most of our methods, where we turned chores into recreation to avoid going insane - by the time we finally went back to the past, our cart was an absolute mess, engravings of a dozen different styles absolutely covering it. 

> CH. 5  [Law]

[…]

We had to do away with the right to a jury and minor punishments. With supplies so thin, we were forced to resort to capital punishment for even the smallest of thefts - either execution, or banishment from the band and left behind for the Risen. Morale suffered for it, but we persevered. I believe that the intense belief in justice that some of my compatriots have come to hold comes from this rough legal framework, where we were forced to define every action into 'right’ and 'wrong’ and keep the ultimate punishment in mind. The one exception was when the victim would openly forgive the criminal, at which point his/her rations would be docked and we moved along. 

[…]

The manner of execution was simple - beheading. It was preferred to use blessed weapons such as Falchion or other minor artifacts we retrieved on our journeys, for these seemed to prevent them from rising as Risen. I believe Princess Lucina was forced to carry out twenty-three of these executions before these days ended, from anything ranging between assault (physical or sexual) to theft to murder.

> CONCLUSION

I understand this does not cast a very good light on those of us who survived. But I think it is necessary, to help establish a picture of exactly what we lived through - so that in the horrific event that Grima or some other mythical threat returns, we know what will happen should we fail to stop it. There can be no compromise, for I refuse to let the souls of anyone else become as marred as our own. 

Naga have mercy on us for what we did.


End file.
